Irvine Harbourside

Irvine Harbour from the
East

The River Irvine at Irvine has
been used by shipping for many centuries. Despite recurring problems with
silting, and despite the difficult sand-bar at the mouth of the river, the
number and size of ships visiting Irvine increased steadily, leading to the
construction of a new harbour in deeper water nearer the mouth of the River
Irvine in 1677.

For a time after 1760, Irvine was the third busiest port in
Scotland. Large quantities of coal were being exported to Ireland, and by 1807
the 50 Irvine-owned vessels were trading as far afield as North America.

Shipbuilding grew significantly from the late 1800s, but ceased in
1928: and coal exports declined steadily from the 1930s until the eventual
closure of the Ayrshire
coalfields. Like many other traditional ports, Irvine was left with a great
deal of derelict or under-used land looking for new uses.

The transformation of Irvine Harbourside that started in the 1970s
is one of the most complete and most impressive of the many such redevelopments
across the UK.

You can think of Irvine Harbourside as three distinct but
complementary areas. South of the River Irvine and bordering the coast is
Irvine Beach Park. In 1976 this became home to the massive Magnum Centre.

This includes an indoor and an outdoor heated swimming pool, a 1,200
seat concert hall, and a 350 seat cinema/theatre. At the end of the 1980s it
was Scotland's single most popular attraction with over a million visitors per
year. It remains hugely successful today.

At the south side of the actual mouth of the river is the Automatic
Tide Marker Station, built in 1906. This was designed to measure the depth of
water over the sand bar in the entrance to the channel and signal the results
to ships approaching the harbour.

The core of Irvine Riverside contains some of the most attractive
modern housing you are likely to see anywhere, much of it built by the Irvine
Development Corporation from the 1980s. Intermixed with it are older cottages
and houses, and elements of the Scottish
Maritime Museum. The most striking of these is the vast Linthouse Engine
Shop, rebuilt here as recently as 1991 after relocation from a shipyard in
Govan.

The harbourside itself is home to other elements of the
Maritime Museum, plus more housing.
Here, too, you will find the many small leisure craft which are now the main
users of the harbour: plus a number of attractive pubs designed to appeal to
users of the boats and residents alike.

Until September 2003 Irvine Harbourside was also home to the
Big Idea, a Millennium Project devoted to the
history of invention. Sadly this is no longer open, and the bridge over the
River Irvine leading to it has been partly dismantled.